American Samoa to Tonga

So we said farewell to all our friends Monday night and departed on Tuesday. Well it wasn't that simple. We were ready to leave Tuesday morning but had a few errands to run at the last minute. We also decided to make the passage alongside Wind Witch with Bob and the boys David and Florent so we helped each other get ready by making last minute water and fuel runs. They came over to help us with the two anchors we had out. Weeeellll they were both fouled:( nothing is ever easy is it.... So our hero Dane saved the day by diving down on both and releasing them for us!!!! We hung out free of the clutches of American Samoa while he dove on his own anchor that he lost recently and then helped Wind Witch get theirs up. Theirs was a bit easier so it didn't take so long. We said goodbye to Dane :( and we finally left around 6:30pm. Seems to be working out for us tho because we are about to enter the pass to tonga here in about 2 hours putting us in the mooring mid day! The passage was somewhat exhausting physically and mentally aaaand emotionally.... Ty and I decided on 3 hr watches so we just take lil micro-naps and then back on watch. Of course I was nauseous until day 3 like always. Then I started cleaning stuff around the boat and making food again so I knew my sea legs were back! :) the wind has been PUMPIN and we got the main up finally!!! Well to the 3rd reef anyway. Still waiting on more parts...but we have been flyin along having the best sail ever on this boat! I could do without this crazy southeasterly swell tho. We have been getting pounded and beat up by these 2-4 meter swells the whole way. Oh and we got stuck in a squall line or somethin last night. We just had squall after freakin squall which is stressful. You never know if its going to have crazy strong gusts or just a little rain. We have the main reefed already so we just took in the genoa a bit. Didn't even need the staysail but we had it set up on deck and ready to fly if we needed it. I think we would have used it had the wind been blowing 35-40kts but it was between 18-22 with gusts around 26-28kts. Although my nerves were shot we were just fine and she sailed beautifully thorough it all so first go with the new main sail was 'great success!' :).... I woke up today with Ty letting the genoa out all the way in 20-22kts and our speed over ground was 7-7.4kts!!! He said we are gettin there TODAY. Beautiful day no more squalls and clouds and we can finally see land! We figured we would e here about midday on Saturday so feels good to meet the goal for once. There are supposed to be a couple of cool caves here where you can dinghy into and snorkel into so we are going to spend a couple days here and then head off to Fiji. 

The departed

The not so present company is being missed about now!!!! 

Aaaaand boys playin with toys

Laundry

In the cruising world, laundry is something you make a day out of...not something you knock out while you are cleaning the house or making dinner or mowing the lawn....when our laundry bag is full it means there are about 2-3 large washer size loads (as opposed to small washer size loads like in French poly) sheets and towels are constantly needing wash since we are always using them to soak up leaks from hatches or dry off after a crazy upwind dinghy ride. Sheets obviously because we sweat a lot and we like clean sheets....:) so when we do laundry I gather everything up in the bag, grab some powder detergent and put it in a ziplock bag and throw it in my backpack. Then Ty drops me off at the dock and I walk about a quarter of a mile to the laundry mat. 

There is a store next to it that sells food and will also give u change for the machines. It takes $1.25 for washing and $1.75 for drying but usually more for the dryers because they need more than 42 minutes to dry large loads. So I use 3 machines for wash and dry and it takes about an hour and a half just machine time. 

Then we make the hike back to the dinghy dock after folding and using garbage bags to keep the dry clothes dry ....totaling about half the day. While I'm doing this Ty is filling water jugs at the car wash, taking them back to the boat and filling the water tanks. That takes time too. We use the long hose to attach it to the spicket on shore and run it to the jugs in the dinghy. Everything is a process here lol.... Same with the diesel. We can't pull up to a dock here in Am Sam so we Jerry jug it too....getting all this out of the way today and leaving early tomorrow. Bye bye Am Sam hello Tonga where the water is not radioactive ;) 

More pics

Dane!!

Almost fell off a cliff lol...may not that serious...

Bat country!

Hikin

Went for a hike yesterday! We took a bus up to the start of the trail an hikes along the ridge for a total of 5 miles or so. It was a nice jungly hike but there was brush n trees on both sides so not very many good views along the way to the top. We stopped by the famous Tisas Barefoot Bar and went for a swim, had some awesome prawns and roasted bananas and a couple beers.